The War That Saved My Life Book Review

Every year, whenever the winner of the Newbery Medal is announced, there will always be a handful of readers who say, “This title should have won.”

Readers are entitled to their opinions, but since 2016, some have mentioned that The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley should’ve been rewarded with the Newbery Medal instead of the actual winner The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña. The latter is the first picture book to obtain the coveted prize. After reading the former, it’s easy to see why readers might think that way, especially how it deals with disabilities, abuse, and overcoming one’s struggles.

The War That Saved My Life is about Ada – an eleven-year-old girl who lives with a clubfoot during World War 2. She has never left her family’s one-room apartment. Her mother is far too humiliated by Ada’s disability to let her outside. When her brother Jamie is shipped out to London to escape the war, Ada takes the chance and leaves too. The siblings end up in a village in Kent with Susan Smith – a woman who initially didn’t want to have children, yet she takes them in anyway. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan, and Susan begins to love the children. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

This book is a 2016 Newbery Honor Book, and it’s easy to see why. Its protagonist is disabled, yet the novel only feels sorry for her when it needs to. For the rest of the time, it highlights what Ada does to become more independent and trusting of others. For example, she learns to ride Butter – a horse that once belonged to Susan’s friend Becky. She figures out how to ride the pony, but it’s with the help of Fred – a farrier at the Thorton estate – and Maggie Thorton – a girl Ada’s age that she befriends – that she is able to take care of the horse. It also shows her as a flawed child. At times, I was frustrated by her because it was clear that the people around her wanted to help, but she would have none of it. However, I understood why she felt that way due to the trauma inflicted by her mother and the environment she lived in prior to residing with Susan. It also helps that she writes her story a few years after the events, which allows her to have a more balanced perspective on it.

Now, let’s talk about Susan. Susan is a woman who at first doesn’t want children because she claims “she’s not nice.”

She’s only assigned to take care of Ada and Jamie because they were the only ones left at the station, and Lady Thorton wanted to find them a home for the time being. Over time, Susan learns more about the siblings and how to fend for them. This is especially true when Ada has her panic attacks whenever she’s reminded of the abuse her mother inflicted onto her. Once Susan understands why Ada freaks out at these moments, she wraps her up in a heavy blanket and tries to soothe her. Additionally, when Susan finds out that Jamie’s teacher has been assaulting him at school for being left handed, she marches down to the school house and confronts her head on. Susan doesn’t always get it right, but she slowly begins to love both Jamie and Ada.

In addition, I enjoy how the book deals with lies and liars. In it, Susan relays to Ada that lies are things people tell to others or to themselves to protect them, while liars are people who fib in order to maintain control over others. Ada tells lies to others about her clubfoot because she wants to protect herself from other people’s prejudices, yet that doesn’t make her into a liar (unlike her mother). I like how it doesn’t entirely judge people for lying, but of course, it’s better to tell the truth. Overtime, Ada tells her real story to others as she becomes more trusting of others as well as herself.

Speaking of prejudices, I also like how the novel handles that. In various media, those with strong animosity against certain people are usually depicted as bad, backward, and even crazy individuals. In The War That Saved My Life, those who possess prejudices against Ada and her disability are often average people like you and me. For example, Ada comes across Jamie’s friend Billy and his family at the station when they’re about to leave. She smiles at Billy’s youngest sister, yet the mother “[pulls] her a little bit away from [her], as though [her] bad foot might be catching” (p. 70)

Later, the mom says to Ada, “I’m that surprised to see you out with ordinary people. I thought they’d put you in an asylum” (p. 71).

Ada didn’t know what to say at that time. She soon reveals that she waved to the mom whenever the latter walked by, and she would wave back. Ada thought that the adult was a nice person. When some time has passed, Ada sees a spy and reports it to the police. The officer at the desk initially doesn’t believe her, but once she says that her foot is a long way from her brain, he agrees to help to find the culprit.

I also want to point out that there are parts that can be tough to get through. For example, the scenes in the apartment can be intense. This is especially true when Ada uses rather cruel methods to keep Jamie in the apartment, and when their mother stuffs her in the cabinet. Fortunately, that’s mainly in the two chapters. As I mentioned earlier, there are moments in which Ada has panic attacks. These sections can be difficult to read through, yet as mentioned before, the novel’s emphasis is on overcoming certain obstacles instead of wallowing in the suffering. This point is clearly illustrated near the end when Ada comes up with a rather ingenious way to take her and Jamie off their mother’s hands after it’s revealed that their mom only took them back to avoid paying the government more money to keep them away.

After examining The War That Saved My Life, I can clearly understand why it got snubbed for the Newbery Medal. The best comparison I can make is that The War That Saved My Life is Saving Private Ryan, while Last Stop on Market Street is Shakespeare in Love at the 1998 Academy Awards. The latters are feel-good media with some exploration on topics like class, while the formers can be too intense for some despite how good the materials are. Also, both The War That Saved My Life and Saving Private Ryan take place during the same conflict. I can see why in the end, the votes went to Last Stop on Market Street, yet that doesn’t mean people won’t stop loving The War That Saved My Life.

To summarize, The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is a wonderful historical fiction juvenile book about gaining strength despite fear and prejudice during World War II. Ada is a complex character who’s relatable for both kids and adults. Sure, it can be tough to read sometimes, but the book’s focus on Ada overcoming her fears as opposed to her suffering makes it worth the read. I would recommend this to readers who like reading historical fiction, specifically during World War 2, and about disabled characters. People will always love certain titles even if they don’t win the biggest awards.

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From the Sidelines to the Finish Line: A Chronic Illness Survivor’s Challenges and Everyday Triumphs Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an electronic ARC of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Many memoirs like Educated have amazed me with their realness and honesty. When I think they can’t astonish me anymore, they do something extraordinary and then some. Today’s subject From the Sidelines to the Finish Line: A Chronic Illness Survivor’s Challenges and Everyday Triumphs by Emily Falcon does just that. It’s a powerful story about a woman with a congenital heart condition who survives by living the life that she wants to live.

From the Sidelines to the Finish Line: A Chronic Illness Survivor’s Challenges and Everyday Triumphs is the story of one woman’s lifelong journey with a congenital cardiac condition. In 1982, at seven weeks old, Emily had a heart attack that destroyed 40% of the left side of her heart. This led to her having multiple heart procedures, surgeries, and hospitalizations, and on top of that, she was later diagnosed with glaucoma. Balancing these conditions was the story of her life to the point that she had to ask permission from her doctors to perform activities that would be considered extraneous. Then in 2017, when things couldn’t get any better, she had her second open-heart surgery, which allowed to participate in a 5K race only eight months later. She was no longer stuck on the sidelines. Not only is this a story of survival and how her condition shaped and limited Emily, but also it’s one where she recounts the ways in which she overcame obstacles that people who live with similar conditions and their supports might face.

The memoir consists of two parts. The first is about her chronic illnesses and how she navigated through them. The second is about her life during and after her second open-heart surgery as well as how she found the ability to live with barely any limitations.

I was interested in Emily’s story from the very beginning. It’s very easy for an author to get so wrapped up in the story to the point that they are defined by what they have been through. That’s not the case for her. While she relayed the facts about her heart conditions and the two surgeries, she allowed readers to get to know her. Falcon cherishes her best friend Mabel, who also has heart issues, and loves her family, to travel, and to eat pasta whenever she can. I also thought it was cute that her mom called her Benjamin (as in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) when Emily’s condition improved after her first surgery.

I was also intrigued by how Emily felt about the whole ordeal of having a heart condition. She recounts that after confessing to people that she has congenital heart failure, they would often complement her for being so brave. However, she never felt that way because all she was doing was surviving. This was compelling since I never thought of it that way. Deciding to have a second open-heart surgery may seem brave, for it hangs on either life or death when completed. But for people like Emily, they are simply choices they have to take to extend their longevity and to thrive.

One of the themes that ran in this memoir was speaking up for one’s self. Emily explains that she always had a hard time advocating for herself because doctors and medical students would probe, prod, and look at her as if she was an object. It didn’t help that many of the professionals whom she saw were ones that came off as cold and aloof according to her. Overtime, she found cardiologists who were willing to see her as a human. This made me think, “If only she had Dr. Stephen Stowers as her cardiologist.”

Much like Stowers in Box of Birds, Emily communicates her ideas clearly. Through the book, she frequently mentions how she didn’t really know what was truly going on with her heart until she was an adult. That’s why she does her best to explain what her heart condition entails and other medical terms. Specifically, at seven weeks old, she was diagnosed with an anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA). She defines it as what happened when the “left coronary artery, which carries blood to the heart muscle, arose from the pulmonary artery instead of the aorta,” and this prevented “the heart’s blood supply from having sufficient oxygen and blood pressure” (p. 6). 

She even includes a Medical Glossary section as a reference. This is extremely helpful because the first half was all about how she dealt with her chronic illnesses, so naturally, that part was littered with that terminology.

Another theme was about not being afraid to expand one’s boundaries. As mentioned earlier, a good chunk of Emily’s life was dictated by the cardiologists. She had to be careful about what she could and couldn’t do. For example, she couldn’t participate in gym classes in the same way other kids could. Even when the teacher let the students run/walk at their own pace, she wasn’t allowed that option. That infuriated me because it’s insulting when opportunities are presented and taken away at the same time. Despite this, she had the motto, “Don’t waste a second.” This led to her traveling extensively to places like London, France, Norway, and Japan. Then, after she had her second open-heart surgery, Emily began to do other things like working temporarily in Alaska and the aforementioned 5K race without asking her doctors first. These helped her test her abilities both physically and emotionally.

To add to that point, the forward is written by Russ Hoft – President and CEO of the Hoyt Foundation. His brother Rick had cerebral palsy and was a non speaking quadriplegic, yet he and their dad ran races like the Boston Marathon. They had the motto “Yes You Can.”

While the first half of the book was super engaging, the second faltered a little bit after the 5K race section. This was because she was listing her accomplishments with some passages about how she felt about them. It’s not the first time that I’ve encountered this (*cough Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle). Nonetheless, her achievements are still extraordinary, and reading about them was still interesting.

From the Sidelines to the Finish Line: A Chronic Illness Survivor’s Challenges and Everyday Triumphs by Emily Falcon was an enjoyable memoir about a woman who learns to choose what she wants to do with her life despite having a cardiac condition. I loved getting to know her and her perspective on various things. This made me want to root for her when she was faced with challenges. I would recommend this to those who have similar conditions or know someone who does as well as to readers who love memoirs that tackle survival despite the obstacles. I hope memoirs continue to amaze me just like this one does.

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Blue Eyed Devil Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from Stress Free Book Marketing in exchange for an honest review.

Every now and then, the genre description of the book catches my eye. I’m always fascinated by how it identifies itself. I talked about this briefly when I reviewed the comic thriller The Bouncer by David Gordon. Recently, I came across Blue Eyed Devil by MJ McDuffie, which calls itself a paranormal political thriller. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I still read it anyway.  The best way that I can label it is what if Beauty and the Beast was a paranormal political thriller. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still entertaining.

Blue Eyed Devil is the first book in “The Celtic Seven Kings” Series. Fate intertwines when Remi Montgomery – a FBI agent who possesses the ability to see auras – and Belle Brooks – a captivating widow who finds herself untangling the dark legacy of her billionaire criminal husband – meet, and their lives are turned upside down. As their connections deepens, they become entangled in a web of mystery, secrets, and danger. On top of that, a malevolent force has set their sights on Belle. This forces the duo to navigate various obstacles like an old IRA bombing and several rigged presidential elections, which somehow factor into a miracle drug waiting for FDA approval. But how are they all connected? Belle and Remy must race against the clock to unravel the evil plot and stop the monster determined to have her at all costs.

Let’s get this out of the way. The main female character is named Belle, and the novel acknowledges this by having Remy think about how she shares the same name as the nerdiest Princess that the House of Mouse has created. The protagonist is like that character because she is smart, can be stubborn at times, and is clearly beautiful. Making this comparison made me realize that other people are similar to those in the animated Beauty and the Beast (1991). Remy is the Beast because he is described in almost a monstrous way with being big and having broad shoulders. Despite his appearance, Belle is enamored by his blue eyes. Also, he is tormented due to his grief for his dead wife. Granny – Belle’s grandma – is Maurice except she runs a sage farm. And there is Sam – Belle’s deceased husband. I thought he was like Gaston since he was incredibly good looking and an awful human being by constantly cheating on his wife. However, as the story unfolded, it was clear that he was more like a LeFou in that he was a beta male being controlled by someone else. I’m not going to spoil who the malevolent force is. All I can say is that they are a combination of Gaston and the creepy old man who runs the asylum. 

The paranormal aspect is kept to a minimum. This was done to establish both Remy’s and Belle’s abilities. The excerpt from Book 2 Green Eyed Monster (I will be disappointed if it doesn’t make any Othello references) at the end of this novel hints how the supernatural will play a bigger role. As mentioned earlier, Remy has the capability of seeing auras above people’s heads. This allows him to sense what they’re feeling, especially if they are masking them, and how trustworthy they are. This allows him to take different approaches when talking to various people about the case at hand. Meanwhile, Belle has the power to transport herself to a different time and place by touching a document to see what was going on at that time. However, she can’t do this frequently because it will take tons of energy out of her. Both abilities are well used in the book, and I look forward to seeing how they are utilized in subsequent titles.

The political side is also subdued. No one expresses their political views outright. It’s more in the exploration of certain events like the aforementioned IRA bombing and rigged presidential elections. In addition, a secret society called the Seven Kings is involved. I’m not entirely sure if they are a political organization, but then again, 14 US Presidents were a part of the Freemasons. The politics is more basic because the book wants to explore the human side of it, especially how those events personally relate to Remy and Belle. Out of the three descriptors of this book, this one feels the least important because of how it’s utilized in the story. Maybe it will be explored more in future titles.

As for the thriller aspect, this was the one that let me down the most. Granted, it’s a slow burn, and that can be done well. This is close, but no cigar. If McDuffie had less scenes involving the main characters going over the facts, the plot would’ve had better pacing. However, there were parts that had me fully invested. This included a scene in which Granny’s house gets blown up. In addition, the ending was unsettling in a good way.

Even though the paranormal, political, and thriller sides weren’t fully intriguing, the possible romance was. Throughout the novel, Belle and Remy have instant chemistry, yet it’s played like a will-they-won’t-they story. They both have lost a spouse, but they have their reasons for not initially trusting each other. For Remy, it’s because Belle is stubborn, and Sam was a friend of his who later made his life miserable. As for Belle, she is grappling with Sam’s death, and she sees Remy as a blue eyed devil (title drop!). They butt heads throughout, yet in the moments when they open up and reveal the trauma they’ve been through, they become closer. It’s these passages that are the strongest elements in the story. It’s truly tested when Belle finds a note from Sam written before he died that makes her believe that Remy was betraying her. I can’t wait to see how their relationship plays out in the rest of the series.

In addition, there’s a recipe for cinnamon rolls in the back of the book, and it’s supposedly created by Granny. I don’t know if this was all that necessary because I’m not sure if those sweets were even mentioned. I would expect this out of a mystery written by Joanne Fluke. Nevertheless, it’s still nice to have that. I might make it at some point.

Blue Eyed Devil by MJ McDuffie is overhyped in the paranormal political thriller sense, but it was still entertaining. The first two genre labels felt subdued, while the third could’ve been better with tighter pacing. Nonetheless, it had me invested when necessary. Remy and Belle are engaging characters, and I always looked forward to the quieter moments where they opened up to each other. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for readers who like political-based books and thrillers, I would suggest it to those who like the supernatural, titles dealing with grief, and Beauty and the Beast retellings. Even though Blue Eyed Devil didn’t quite work, I have no regrets reading it. At least I know what a paranormal political thriller can be.

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Laws of Annihilation Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

There’s one topic that I haven’t discussed before on this website: celebrities writing fiction. They mainly do it to show people that they are talented in other outlets. It’s a make-it or break-it scenario since there are some that are really good at it like Tom Hanks, and there are others that are not so much like Tyra Banks. I read a book recently that thankfully falls into the former category. Laws of Annihilation by Eriq La Salle, who is best known for his role as Dr. Peter Benton on ER, is a great crime fiction story with engaging characters and story.

Laws of Annihilation is the third book in the “Martyr Maker” series. A heat wave is passing through New York City, and tensions between the black and Hasidic communities have increased since a tragic incident left a Black teenager dead. However, when two rabbis are killed in such a gruesome way, it displays the signs of retaliation. Meanwhile, agent Janet Maclin’s dreams of becoming the first female FBI director comes crashing down when she discovers that she has stage IV cancer. Despite that, she is willing to help NYPD detectives Phee Freeman and Quincy Cavanaugh find the killer as more hate crimes push the city to the edge and into an all-out war. As the body count climbs, time is running out for Janet in more ways than one.

I haven’t read the first two books in the “Martyr Maker” series, but from what I understand, the first book Laws of Depravity establishes the three main characters Janet, Phee, and Quincy; what they do; and how they work together. The second title Laws of Wrath emphasizes Phee’s personal struggles, especially while coping with his brother’s death. 

In this case, Laws of Annihilation focuses on Janet and how she wrestles death with her diagnosis and religion since she was raised Jewish even though she’s not that religious. I really liked Janet since she gave me Sandra Bullock-Mariska Hargitary vibes. Much like those actresses, Janet was tough on the outside and felt fine with being a loner, yet she could be vulnerable on the inside and realizes that having people around can be good whether it’s her co-workers/friends Phee and Quincy or her friends-with-benefit/boyfriend Losher.

Many of the other characters are also fully realized. Phee is a devoted Black husband and father, but he can also have a temper and may not always see eye to eye with Janet. He is willing to bend the rules of the law in order to catch the criminals they are after. In addition, in various chapters, two mutilated people – a African-American man named Spider and a Jewish man named Ezra – are locked up in the basement of a slaughterhouse. Both have their prejudices against each other. Spider despises Jewish people because he believes that they were responsible for his teenaged nephew’s death. Ezra, who is the son of a Rebbe, hates Black people since he was attacked by a group of them when he was in college years ago. Over the course of the book, they find ways to understand each other even if they don’t have their fingers or eyes.

Quincy, who is of Irish-Italian descent, is basically the most reasonable and middle ground of the three. He’s not as developed compared to Janet or Phee. However, the epilogue sets up what will probably be another book in the series with the focus being on him.

As I mentioned earlier, I am usually wary of celebrities writing fiction, but Eriq La Salle is a good writer. Along with character development, he is able to allow the plot to unfold in natural ways. Funny enough, many of the chapters would end on some form of a cliff hanger. Both the story and character work hand in hand that allows readers to be invested in both. It felt like the “Armand Gamache” series by Louise Penny, for the people matter as much as the plot.

Since the story involves prejudice and race wars, there are plenty of instances in which characters contemplate what it means to be a certain race like black or Jewish. Specifically, they wonder how they developed their thoughts on others throughout their entire lives. I’ve already mentioned about Janet, Spider, and Ezra, but even the son of a white supremacist business man displays moments of sadness and anger for a Black man that gets lynched at a Fourth of July celebration. What that boy does at the end is astonishing.

I will warn readers that the scenes involving violence can be gritty and gruesome. Like I mentioned earlier, Spider and Ezra are beaten to a pulp, with Spider’s fingers getting cut off, and Ezra being blinded. Even the lynching scene and descriptions of the body afterwards are intentionally horrific. It’s understandable as to why La Salle portrays those deaths and the investigations in that way. In addition to being an actor, he has directed various episodes for shows like Law and Order and CSI: NY. Those dramas would discuss crimes in great detail no matter how uncomfortable it can be for audiences because that reflects the reality of the work. This explains why the majority of the chapters would end on a dramatic cliffhanger.

Laws of Annihilation by Eriq La Salle is not only a great piece of fiction by a celebrity, but also it’s excellent in general. It didn’t matter that I never read the first two books in the series, for I immediately got the sense of who the main characters were and understood why they worked so well together. The plot was also engaging as many of the people in the novel give serious thought as to why their prejudices are what they are. It all feels like a title in the “Armand Gamache” series by Louise Penny, in which the characters, their struggles, and dynamics matter as much as the mystery and the suspense. I would definitely recommend this to those who love crime fiction, titles that deal with prejudice in a multitude of ways, and who enjoy the work of Eriq La Salle both onscreen and offscreen. The book is out, so go check it out if you haven’t already. In the meantime, I’m going to begin reading Laws of Depravity and Laws of Wrath as well as wait patiently for the fourth book to come out.

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NeuroMastery: Retraining Your Brain to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Attacks Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from Stress Free Book Marketing in exchange for an honest review.

It’s no secret that mental health has become a more prominent issue in today’s life. Plenty of self-help books have come out to address it in a variety of ways. But, have any of them gone inside the brain? I have come across one recently that explores the neurological side of having mental wellness issues called NeuroMastery: Retraining Your Brain to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Attacks by Ugochukwu Uche MS., LPC. It’s a unique book that gives tips to readers on how they can gradually rewire their brain to overcome the problems mentioned even if it repeats itself constantly.

Based on the latest cognitive neuroscience and counseling psychological research, NeuroMastery: Retraining Your Brain to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Attacks offers a comprehensive guide to reshaping one’s brain to improve responses to anxiety, fear, and panic attacks. One will learn about the brain’s anatomy, the trail that stress takes through the brain, and how negative thoughts contribute to anxiety and fear. The book also introduces readers to effective cognitive behavioral strategies, mindfulness techniques, and lifestyle modifications to manage anxiety. One can learn to face one’s fears through exposure and desensitization and discover how resilience and positive change can be nurtured through understanding and harnessing neuroplasticity. It’s a road map to a calmer, more controlled, and resilient life. 

As one will probably figure out from that summary, NeutroMastery focuses more on what the brain does while someone is experiencing anxiety, fear, and/or panic attacks. There are plenty of books that discuss how to overcome those states through various measures, but as far I know, not many discuss what the cerebellum functions while dealing with those emotions. The first half of this title greatly details what the brain experiences while going through anxiety, fear, and panic attacks. These involve parts of the brain like the amygdala – “a small, almond-shaped structure deep within the brain’s temporal lobes” that interprets “sensory information information and [initiates] the body’s response to danger;” the prefrontal cortex, which plays a crucial role in managing emotional responses triggered by the amygdala; and the hippocampus, which is responsible for “[storing] and [retrieving] memories related to fear and trauma” (p.5-6).

These sections will delight readers who are interested in the neurological side of mental health. Personally, I have dealt with anxiety, fear, and panic attacks, and it helps me to understand how and why my brain responds to things that trigger me. However, I can see how others can be bored by them, especially if they never really liked biology to begin with, because it is super into explaining how the brain operates in those states. 

The second half emphasizes various treatments. This includes cognitive behavioral and exposure therapies, mindfulness and relaxation techniques, desensitization, yoga, eating healthy, getting plenty of sleep, and thinking more positive thoughts (p.55-103). Uche goes through assessment and how to apply each one although he is quick to mention that one treatment may work for some, but not for others. In addition, he stresses that these should be conducted by a trained mental health professional. These sections are a lot more fascinating to read about because the author is clearly invested in exploring each option. This love even gets spilled over to the first half as a way to tease the readers of what is to come.

At the end of each chapter, Uche provides a story about a woman named Lucy who has panic attacks whenever she drives or has thoughts about driving. Her gradual journey in retraining her brain unfolds throughout the book, and it provides a good way to apply what he has been saying into a real world scenario. Without it, not many readers would fully understand the handbook.

My complaint is that Uche has a tendency to repeat himself a lot. Now, I understand that this is necessary in self-help books in order to drill what they say into the readers’ heads. In this case, the author’s repetition is frequent. What do I mean by this? He’ll introduce a concept on one page. Then, he says roughly the same thing a few pages later. I swore I was having deja vu when reading certain sections because they sounded so identical. For example, Uche talks about the feedback loop of fear, which is a “self-perpetuating cycle of fear and anxiety” (p. 26).

In the paragraph that describes the feedback loop of fear, it starts off like this:

“The feedback loop of fear starts with an initial trigger—an event, situation, or even a thought that the brain interprets as threatening. This trigger activates the amygdala, the brain’s alarm center, sparking a cascade of physiological responses—the fight, flight, or freeze response” (p. 26)

A few pages later, he summarizes his point like this:

“The feedback loop of fear begins with a trigger—a situation, thought, or sensation perceived as threatening. This trigger activates the amygdala, leading to a fight, flight, or freeze response, which involves various physiological changes such as increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and heightened alertness” (p.29).

While it’s not quite copy and paste, I had to do a double take just to make sure I wasn’t re-reading the same thing.

Another thing I thought of is that this book is certainly useful for people whose lives are divided because of the trauma they experienced. In other words, there was life before and after the event. But what about those who suffered through trauma before they even started to remember? There are plenty of people who basically grew up with anxiety, fear, and panic attacks like growing up in an abusive environment. Uche doesn’t really address that, and I wish he did.

Overall, NeuroMastery: Retraining Your Brain to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Panic Attacks by Ugochukwu Uche MS., LPC is a unique look at anxiety, fear, and panic attacks and how one can overcome them by understanding how the brain functions. While it’s clear that the author is very knowledgeable about the subject, he could’ve conveyed how the brain operates while under those states more effectively, so all readers regardless of their personal interests would get. Nevertheless, readers will certainly learn about the neurological side of dealing with mental wellness issues as well as how various treatments affect the cerebellum. Since the book is out tomorrow, Tuesday, October 24, I would recommend this book to those who are into the science aspects of mental health, especially those who are biology and psychology students. It may help to retrain some brains to conquer anxiety, fear, and panic attacks, but possibly not others, particularly those who would need a more traditional approach to conquering those problems.

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The Ballad of Peckham Rye Book Review

In all of the five years that I’ve been reviewing books, 2023 has to be the one where I’ve looked at the strangest titles ever. I’ve read at least two of them this year. Now, I can add another one to that list, and it’s an older one. It’s called The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark. It’s a devilishly good take on the stranger-coming-into-town story.

The Ballad of Peckham Rye is a farcical fable about a blue-collar town in South London that’s turned upside down. When the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires Scotsman Dougal Douglas (aka Douglas Dougal) to conduct “human research” into the private lives of their workers, they don’t foresee the mayhem, mutiny, and even murder that he will stir up. He ends up changing the lives of the eccentric characters he meets from Miss Merle Coverdale, the head of the typing pool, to V.R. Druce, the unsuspecting Managing Director.

For those who don’t know, Muriel Spark was a 20th Century Scottish writer. Her best known works were Memento Mori (1959), The Girls of Slender Means (1963), and most notably The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). The last one was turned into a play and later a movie that starred Dame Maggie Smith in the titular teacher role that got her the Best Actress Oscar in 1969 (the same year that Peter O’Toole was nominated for Best Actor for playing an instructor too!). 

The first reason why I bring this up is that The Ballad of Peckham Rye was published in 1960, one year before The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (yes, I’m fully aware that the titles are similar). The second is that it’s not among Spark’s well-known novels. I haven’t read any other books by her, but from what I’ve read from other reviewers, it’s a weird one.

I bet readers are asking how strange it is. Well, the man who comes into town and eventually wrecks havoc is one who may or may not be the Devil incarnate. Dougal/Douglas tells various people that he had horns but had them removed when he was younger, and it’s treated as if it’s completely normal. He also likes to take days off, which made me want his bosses to yell at him similar to how Alucard’s master does the same thing anytime he wants to go on a walk in the abridged version of the Hellsing Ultimate anime. But, that would be so un-British. Furthermore, he gets chummy with a bunch of employees, especially the female ones, by playing the role of the sad guy with the uneven shoulders. He has a hunch both figuratively and literally.

This isn’t just the Dougal/Douglas show even though he is the most memorable character. The rest of the cast are just as unforgettable. Spark has a knack for describing them in compact ways that I knew immediately who they were. The story is framed around why a young woman named Dixie was stood up by her fiance Humphrey at the altar. Dixie is a frugal person and works as a typist at Meadows, Meade & Grindley. She doesn’t like Dougal/Douglas because she thinks he’s putting ideas into the idiot Humphrey’s head. She wants to save and save for when they get married and purchase a home together. Then there is Miss Merle Coverdale. She’s the 38-year-old head of the typist pool at the same firm, and she’s been carrying on a loveless affair with V.R. Druce – a married man – for years. She is drawn to Douglas/Dougal since he is someone that she can talk to about her problems while still maintaining a front at work. Dixie and Miss Merle Coverdale were my favorite characters because of how defined their personalities and goals were. I always looked forward to finding out what they were up to.

I was also struck by how Pythonesque it felt. As mentioned earlier, it was farcical that Douglas/Dougal would tell people about his horns, and yet, the novel treats this as normal. However, it didn’t go all the way since the book was published in 1960, 9 years before Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired. A lot of that absurd humor was still being developed. 

In fact, the tone felt closer to that of an Ealing Studios comedy. For those who don’t know, it’s a British studio that produced plenty of comedies post World War II, and they tended to focus on “unconventional, anti bureaucratic individuals in realistic settings.” These films included Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Lady Killers (1955). Coincidentally, all of these movies starred Sir Alec Guiness before he became Obi Wan Kenobi. This tone is perfectly seen in The Ballad of Peckham Rye because of its exploitation of an eccentric character in a practical setting.

Despite how much I love the characters, I wasn’t really able to get into the story. I’m not entirely sure why. There wasn’t much of a plot to begin with. It’s basically a man coming into town and causing chaos. Maybe I thought since I knew what was going to go down, I wasn’t as invested as I should be although the whole Devil scenario caught me off guard. Then, there’s also how things abruptly came out of nowhere. This is especially true of what happens with Merle at the very end.

Overall, The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark is strange, but delightful in a British sense. The best way to look at this book is a character study of a blue-collar English town and of the man who “invades” it. Each of the main cast have well-defined personas and goals. The tone is another highlight since it captures a lot of black comedy that British films had at that time. People will certainly have opinions about Dougal/Douglas being the Devil incarnate. I would recommend this book to those love titles by 20th Century British writers, the stranger-coming-into-town trope, Ealing Studio comedies, and other novels by Spark. 

Before I go, I want to let you all know that the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast is out now! It involves how guest Dashiell Silva and I would attempt to adapt this very book. Check it out at this link!

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There There Book Review

I’ve read plenty of books by indigenous authors, but none of them dealt with the lives of urban Native Americans. Plus, I will be honest and say that I didn’t really know that group even existed. This gap was the reason why Tommy Orange – an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma – wanted to write about them in the first place. And he did with his debut novel 2018’s There There. Although not everything works in the book, I admire its ambitions.

There There follows twelve people from various Native communities as they travel to the Big Oakland Powwow in Oakland, California. They’re all connected in ways they may not yet realize. These voices tell the story of the urban Native American, grappling with its complex and painful history, beauty, spirituality, communion, sacrifice, and heroism.

The title refers not to the phrase that people say to quell someone’s sadness and suffering, but to a quote from Gertrude Stein. Specifically, as someone who had lived in Oakland, she said this: 

“…what was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or any- thing if I like but not there, there is no there there” (Everybody’s Autobiography, p. 298).

Stein was lamenting how she couldn’t find her childhood home when she was on a lecture tour in 1935 and how the land around it was completely changed. In the context of the book There There, the quote is used to reflect a hard truth of how indigenous people were so displaced that they couldn’t recognize their ancestral lands anymore. It’s even referred to by a character named Dene Oxendene, a filmmaker who receives a grant and and describes himself as “ambiguously nonwhite” (p. 28, p. 38-39).

A common word to describe There There is ambitious, and I completely agree. Orange sets the standards high by having a prologue that details how white people conquered the indigenous as well as the origins of the urban Native American. This happens right before the first section entitled “Remain.” Then, in the Interlude in the second part labeled “Reclaim,” he describes the meaning of powwows, how last names were bestowed onto the indigenous, and how they continue the fight to be seen in the present tense. There’s also a third and final section called “Return.” These provide a proper context of the inner conflicts each of the twelve characters go through, which unifies them as the story unfolds. The “Interlude” section comes a bit out of nowhere, but it felt necessary as everyone gears up to go to the Big Oakland Powwow at that point of the story.

On the other hand, not all of Orange’s ambitious ideas work as effectively as they should. Each chapter is devoted to one character and how they deal with being an urban Native American. All of them have their reasons for going to the powwow. However, it’s a little hard to connect to them since once I’m into one person, the book switches to another perspective. At various times, I had to go back to the beginning to see which character was who. It didn’t help that the plot is told through a third point of view. The characters I gravitated to the most were Edwin Black and Jacquie Red Feather. Edwin is an overweight half-indigenous and half-white man who still lives with his mom and has issues with her boyfriend. He wants to begin his life again by working and finding his biological Native father. Jacquie is a Cherokee woman who copes with her trauma of being raped while drunk as a teenager at Alcatraz in 1970. And yet, she longs to see her grandchildren again, who are currently staying with her half-sister Opal.

At the same time, I enjoyed how the novel reveals how each of the characters are related. It does this gradually, and it’s very effective. Even though I was reading this while in bed, it made me actively try to piece together how each is connected. 

Another reason why I had a somewhat difficult time reading it was the pacing. It was very slow for the first half because the book needed to explain each of the character’s situations. This was why each chapter was about 15-20 pages. I understand that this was done to represent their reflections on their individual and group past traumas, which is highly important to the story being told, yet it strongly affected the pacing. Fortunately, once those exposition dumps were out of the way, the pacing picked up. This is exemplified by the shorter chapters. Some of them weren’t even a page long. This approach makes sense, for something drastic happens at the powwow, which frazzles many characters’ minds.

Overall, There There by Tommy Orange is an undoubtedly ambitious debut novel that aims to tell the multiple stories of various urban Native Americans. Even though not all of the book’s ideas work, I admire Orange’s commitment to them as each character has their own yarn to weave. I would recommend this book to those who want to read more books by indigenous authors as well as about the reckoning of Native American identity. I hope there are more tales about native people living in urban areas because this needs to be explored more. Thank you Tommy for helping to fill in this gap! I also look forward to reading his next book Wandering Stars, which is going to be published next year.

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The Indispensable Element: Six Keys to Lead Yourself to Success in Your Life, Work, and Relationships Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given an ARC of this book from Stress Free Book Marketing in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been awhile since I reviewed a self-help book. Yes, I listed Buy My Book, Not Because You Should, But I’d Like Some Money by John Marszalkowski as one, but it’s not a traditional title in that genre. To make it a true self-help book, one has to do two things. 1. The author has to talk about how they overcame their struggles and 2. They have to describe how one can do the same. Today’s title The Indispensable Element: Six Keys to Lead Yourself to Success in Your Life, Work, and Relationships by Micah E. Huggins, Esq. does those things in an active and engaging manner even if the religious tone can turn off some people.

The Indispensable Element: Six Keys to Lead Yourself to Success in Your Life, Work, and Relationships lays out the framework to become a better version of one’s self. Attorney, pastor, and author Micah E. Huggins teaches one to identify the things that are holding one back in life as well as how to step up and lead in relationships, work, and one’s personal life. If one is looking to become the leader God created them to be, great leadership starts with guiding one’s self. Specifically, one will learn how to do the following:

  • Naturally attract followers and supporters.
  • Strengthen your personal and professional relationships.
  • Position yourself for new and better career opportunities.
  • Break unproductive habits and develop habits that serve you.
  • Become confident enough to pursue your biggest dreams.

To sum up, the book believes that the indispensable element to become successful in life is the ability to lead. After all, dreams don’t always come true just by wishing for them. Huggins argues that one has to actively pursue them in order for them to become reality. This involves creating the plan and goals along the way as well as getting to know people with similar mindsets.

However, Huggins is very clear about what leadership actually is. He defines leadership as “the use of your gifts and talents to create positive influence and increase the value other people contribute to society and humanity for the greater good, while also fulfilling your calling and purpose” (p.9).

In other words, true leadership is all about helping others to develop their skills and taking into consideration how one’s actions can affect others. On the contrary, there’s an influencer. In Huggins’s mind, this person can “convince other people to change their beliefs and behaviors…based solely on what’s best for you [the influencer]” (p.12).

A leader can be an influencer, but an influencer can’t be a leader because they are mainly making decisions based on self-interest for good or worse. 

As one can tell from the quotes from the book, Huggins uses jargon that anybody can understand. In fact, this is not the only way he makes it highly accessible. Each of the six keys – gifts, vision, integrity, people, discernment, and faith – gets their own chapter, which are no more than 15 pages. They start off with a story drawn from the author’s own life to make his point about each of the essential aspects of becoming a leader and end with “Indispensable Action Steps.” These are a set of exercises that involve answering questions related to each of the six elements. Huggins actively encourages readers to answer them in a notebook or journal using the Assess-Decide-Act method. This is how invested he is in ensuring that people develop their ability to lead while reading this book.

On top of that, the author makes some excellent points. In the Vision chapter, he recounts how he had to take the bar exam not once, not twice, but four times in order to pass despite the many hours he spent studying and the money he paid to take it. His goal was to become an attorney, and to make that happen, he had to create a plan or a vision. After all, he states, “A leader cannot lead without a vision” (p.44).

In another example, in the “Discernment” chapter, Huggins asserts, “True discernment requires [one] to assess [the] choices based on what’s right for everyone involved and the season [one is] in at that time” (p.88). 

He illustrates this point by recalling a time, when he – as a public defender – was offered the opportunity to buy his boss’s law firm as a franchise. Instead of thinking it over and consulting with his loving and trusting wife Lauren, he took the deal, believing it would make him rich. However, he had to pay a franchise fee and a percentage of gross, not net, sales to his boss. This resulted in the author struggling to stay afloat, and it didn’t help that the staff was still loyal to his former employer. He eventually was able to get out, but had he considered more of that deal, he probably wouldn’t have taken it in the first place.

Huggins makes The Indispensable Element a very effective self-help book, but there’s one aspect that may turn off some readers. You see, he is a pastor as well as a lawyer. He doesn’t shove his religious views down people’s throats, yet his beliefs are still on display because they are part of his life. While I enjoyed his pastor-related stories, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the passages, which he discussed about putting one’s faith into God. Now, this is a me problem since I’m agnostic, but I know that other people might have a stronger reaction with so much religious talk. Surprisingly, this is my second Christian self-help book that I’ve reviewed on this website (the first one was The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity by Matthew Kelly). This is the better of the two because it doesn’t have any inflammatory language, and Huggins spends plenty of time examining his own personal relationship with God, which hasn’t always been perfect.

With that being said, I feel that people of any faith can read this. A lot of values that Christianity espouses can be found in other religions. So if people are able to switch certain words to fit with their beliefs, they would still be able to enjoy it the same as a Christian.

Overall, The Indispensable Element: Six Keys to Lead Yourself to Success in Your Life, Work, and Relationships by Micah E. Huggins, Esq. is a great traditional self-help book for Christians and other religious people. The author is able to communicate his ideas and thoughts in an accessible manner, and he’s actively encouraging his readers to develop their abilities to lead. All of it feels genuine. Even the cover, which features Huggins sitting on a stool, communicates that this man has faith in you to become a great leader. On the other hand, readers who aren’t religious may have a bit of a hard time getting into it due to the devout-like content, yet one could switch some words, and the point would still come across well. The book is out now, so go get it! It’s one of the better Christian self-help books that I’ve read.

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Last Light: A Collection of Short Stories Book Review

Disclosure: I was given an electronic copy of the story by the author and Henry Roi in exchange for an honest review. 

With Halloween coming up, I figured it was time to read something on the spookier side. Recently, I came across the book Last Light: A Collection of Short Stories by Chris Coppel. Normally, I don’t actively seek out horror stories, but this collection gripped me with its eerie and paranoid tales.

I would usually provide my own summary here, but the actual one does a better job.

“What really happens at last light? 

Last Light will give you just enough illumination to see into the wonders and horrors that dwell deep within the darkest shadows. These tales will both entrance and terrify. Scared of the dark? Let Last Light guide you safely through these stories of the paranormal and terror that surrounds us all.”

There are nine stories in this collection, and most of them deal with the psychological side of horror. This specifically includes the paranormal and the paranoia. In case anybody is wondering about the amount of gore in them, there really isn’t any. The only thing that they have in common is how they depict the titular sight, usually as the last things the characters see. 

Each tale shows horror in similar and different ways. In Labour Shortage, a woman working for the British government drives out to a rural English town to see how the locals are growing their crops so quickly and consistently. Let’s just say it involves the supernatural. Lightning Strike deals with paranoia as a Silicon-Valley tycoon tries to protect himself and his new house from the elements after a fire consumes the old one. Lost Words is a retelling of the classic Faust tale, in which an author gives his soul to the devil in order to write one great novel. That one has a pretty clever ending. In Light Dusting, the main character’s brother gets executed for murdering his date. Years later, his sons find their dead uncle’s clothes and put them on a snowman during a rare snow day in Florida. This brings it to life. It’s like Frosty the Snowman if he was on a revenge spree even though I was confused as to why the dead brother’s clothes would bring a snowman to life.

There were two things that I found interesting with this collection. One was that every title started with the letter “L.” I found that it’s Coppel’s trademark because he’s got other books with the same letter from Lucy (his debut novel) to Lunacy (his second most recent one). Sesame Street would be very proud. 

The other was that the first and last stories contained hope. The former titled Living Water involves a rich old businessman wanting to go to a fountain of youth on tribal land in Utah despite the warnings of what happened to others when they did the same thing. The latter story titled Lasting Memories revolves around a man who was recently released from prison trying to rebuild his life when he meets an elderly lady in the same apartment building that he lives in. Coppel makes Living Water and Lasting Memories seem like they are going to be terrifying just by the way things are set up in both. Even the main character in the latter thinks that the old woman is going to seduce him like the one did to Jim Carrey in the film Yes Man. And yet, they are hopeful, and even in the case of the Lasting Memories, heartwarming. It’s clear to see the Stephen King influence on Coppel, yet the author still makes his stories his own.

My favorite stories from this collection are Lasting Memories, Last Touch, and Long Shadows. The former is about a 12-year-old boy who has the knowledge of when someone is going to die within 24 hours just by shaking their hand and feeling a shock. Complications arise when he realizes that every person who shook his hand receives that same shock. It’s one of the shortest tales in the collection, but it packs a punch. I seriously wanted this boy to figure out what was going on and solve it. Sadly, there is no hope in that one. The other story Long Shadows involves a successful horror writer who gets invited to an exclusive dinner in New Orleans. He is then told about the titular creatures who believe that the authors are writing about them and want them destroyed. These monsters are similar to the Weeping Angels in the modern Doctor Who in the eerie way Coppel writes about them. The main difference is how one should confront them. With the shadows, one has to not look directly at them, while with the Weeping Angels, one has to not blink. Unfortunately, the main character in Long Shadows gets too big for his britches and defies the rules. Afterwards, I yelled, “You should’ve listened to the guy!”

The one that I wasn’t crazy about was Lethal Assignment. That one told the tale of a teenaged boy who spends time playing an assassin-based video game and discovers similar murders occurring in real time around the world. The concept is very unique, for there are not a whole lot of science fiction-based horror stories nor ones that involve video games. I would love to see more of these. However, this one simply got a little too intricate to follow. I still enjoyed what I could of it.

All in all, Last Light: A Collection of Short Stories by Chris Coppel was an entertaining psychological horror collection. They mostly did a great job of entrancing and terrifying me. I also found it surprising that some of them contain hope in the face of abject terror. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy short stories, prefer ones with less gore, and love horror overall. The book is out tomorrow, Tuesday, September 26, so go get it soon! In the meantime, I’m going to read another one of Coppel’s works, Lunacy. No way it’ll be my last light with Coppel.

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The Flight of Celestial Race Horses Book Review

In all my years spent reading, I’ve read some books that were indeed bizarre. These include Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko and Transcendence by Shay Savage. Today, I can now add another title to that group: The Flight of Celestial Horses by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the former president and current Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan. It’s a cult of personality picture book wrapped up in a horse fetish.

Normally, I would describe the plot of The Flight of Celestial Horses right here, but there isn’t much to it. It’s a book celebrating the beauty and agility of the Akhal-Teke – the national horse – and praising what the government (when I mean government, I mean what Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow) is doing to preserve that specific breed for the culture.

Vita Nostra and Transcendence are weird because they were written in that way intentionally. The Flight of Celestial Horses was not. I say this because of the man who wrote it. Berdimuhamedow created this book to show the people how much of a good leader he was in 2011 by preserving the animal in question. Keep in mind that he has committed so many humanitarian crimes that it would fill up a football field and has desperately tried to prove to people how much of a strongman he is (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Pduhdgkjk as one example). And those aren’t the most unique aspects about this dictator. Berdimuhamedow is so obsessed with horses, specifically the Akhal-Teke one, that I swear to God he wants to have sex with them. On top of that, he has written other books about this kind of equine like Akhalteke – Our Pride and Glory.

But what if a reader has no idea of any of this context surrounding Berdimuhamedow? Well, they will figure out pretty quickly that he is a dictator who is obsessed with Akhal-Teke horses. For starters, there’s this quote:

“Riding on horse, driving plane steering wheel, sea liner, driving powerful KAMAZ, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow not just demonstrates wonderful physical shape and high professional skills in every business, he fixes in people’s mind the image of modern jigit [strongman in the Turkmen language], who has to do a lot. He must be well-educated, physically strong and esthetically erudite. It is not just good desires” (p. 116).

What is worse is that the horses in the pictures taken look like they want to be anywhere else but near him. On top of that, many of the solo horse shots have a clear view of their penises. Ironically, much of the text discusses how one must keep that breed pure. I’m not making this up.

Propaganda is still propaganda, but I’ve noticed that people will tend to look the other way if it is presented in an effective manner. Think of Triumph of the Will or Top Gun, how they made their subjects look, and their impact on their audiences. There’s a reason why people still reference them in various works. I can’t say the same thing with The Flight of Celestial Race Horses because even if one is able to push aside Berdimuhamedow’s disturbing obsession with the Akhal-Tekes, the text and pictures are not well put together.

The book contains text in between the equine photographs. They do exactly what one expects a horse-engrossed leader would do: praise the Akhal-Tekes in all of their beauty and skills and celebrate its president in ways that are definitely not suspicious. I had to reread some of these passages because of how clunky they were when I read them out loud. Granted, this is probably because it was originally written in Turkmen, so the text didn’t quite translate as well as it should. With that being said, the people who put this book together could’ve at least had an outside person who could look it over before it was officially published in English. There are plenty of grammar and spelling errors. For example, I counted a handful of times, in which two words were stuck together like in this caption of a horse photo, “Look, Ahalteke horse, look, your star has risen, and we believe that it light your way and will neverdie out!” (p.126).

I understand that it has also been translated into Russian, but I don’t know if it contains the same problems listed here.

The photographs themselves are probably the most enjoyable part of the book. They are some nice ones of the horses and the sites in Turkmenistan if you politely ignore how bad the photoshop is. I have some skill in altering digital pictures, yet even I knew how poorly edited these were. Many of the horse models’ shadows looked off. There’s even one where I believe the people involved had to forcibly insert Berdimuhamedow while riding an Akhal-Teke horse at the 2010 Victory Day celebrations in Moscow. I know he was there at that event (go to the 32:45 mark of this video to see for your self), yet the placement of him on the horse looked so awkward. The equine pictures contain captions that detail the name of the horse model as well as their birth year and their lineage. Did I mention that the former president of Turkmenistan is obsessed with the Akhal-Teke horse?

All in all, The Flight of Celestial Horses by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is one that I wondered how it came to exist. It’s a clumsy propaganda book written by a dictator who wanted to show off how strong of a leader he was by preserving a horse breed that he clearly wanted to have sex with. Even if one politely ignores the authorial intent, there are plenty of grammar issues and bad photoshop that will turn off readers. The only people I would recommend this book to are the ones who are able to read this ironically and want to laugh at dictators. It’s enjoyable in those aspects. If not, then I would suggest this video instead.

Before I go, I want to let you all know that the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast is out now It involves how a special guest and I would try to adapt this very book, and you can listen to it here!

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